Futuristic Eyris

[free2bealways]

"Well, if it's just the three of us, it looks you're out-voted, James." Brooklyn beamed. Then she wrapped her arms around James's middle, even around his arms. She rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him. "You're not mad we just started and you're already losing, are you?" Her tone was faux angelic.

He snorted.

~

After dinner, they gathered around living room table where Talia had placed the snacks. James was sprawled on the larger of the two couches. Brooklyn was leaning with her top half across his. Her legs took up the rest of the couch. James had made a an effort to convince Glade to play Nertz, but that had failed. He hadn't really expected to win though. Not with the way Glade had sided with Brooklyn. Glade was clearly out to have some fun at James's expense. Talia continue to refuse to vote and Brooklyn just pointed out that he was being a poor sport. She was not wrong.

James was drinking a whiskey sour served in a large glass. Brooklyn had made herself a cocktail with some of the alcohol and mixers from the replicator. Something called a Bay Breeze.

James was almost afraid to ask who was starting them off. He was sure Brooklyn would instantly volunteer. He decided to get ahead of her.

"Since you chose the game and I was out-voted." James looked pointedly at Talia before continuing, "I get to start."

He briefly considered making Brooklyn wish they'd picked something else by asking her a tough question in front of the group. A tough question she'd already refused to answer. Despite everything, it didn't feel fair to ask her about yesterday this way. He opted for a pointed, yet hopefully less aggressive question.

He took a large sip of his drink.

"Brooklyn, truth or dare?"

Brooklyn bit her lip and squinted at James. She glanced around the apartment, wondering what he could possibly dare her to do. Then she remembered she'd once been banned from dares because it "was a lame cop out" and he was tired of watching her breeze through them. Maybe he wouldn't remember. But maybe he would.

"Truth."

Yes, step into my web...

"Where did you go when you...after that night when you had to stay at your house because Mom and I had to go visit my aunt?" he asked, smirking. He'd wanted to straight-out ask, Where did you go when you disappeared? but that seemed to be giving too much away. It was too personal.

Brooklyn clenched her jaw. So it's like that, is it? She glared at him. "Foster care."

James's mouth dropped open a little before he could stop it. That's where she'd gone? His cheeks tinted. He'd taken the game too far on his first question. Then he realized if Brooklyn went to foster care...what had happened to her mom? He couldn't picture her with a drug problem, but she was also so young. She had to still be alive, right? She couldn't be...

He suddenly didn't want to play anymore. He had ruined the game. On the first question. And he could tell by the look she was giving him, Brooklyn was coming for him.

"Glade, truth or dare?" Brooklyn asked.

James glanced from her to Glade. He hadn't misunderstood the look. She was taking her time. Not a good sign.

 

[Phsyco]

Talia sat down in a large rounded chair that nearly swallowed her, folding her feet beneath her as she all but disappeared under the large red pillow that she pulled over herself.

She glared back playfully at James. “Damn high school drama,” he mumbled about his pointed statement regarding her refusing to vote. “Can’t win for loosing.”

She grabbed a bowl of toasted nuts to snack on and set her drink down on the coffee table beside her chair. A spiked cider with a touch of mint.



Glade gave a curious look from across the central table as he claimed the second sofa all to himself, a cup of whiskey and various fruit juices mixed into a cinnamon-laden drink.

His face went limp at the initial exchange between Brooklyn and James. He noticed Talia glance down at her cup and take a long sip as well.

Then, Brooklyn turned to him. He hadn’t quite expected that. He was one that hated to tell a truth unless he wanted to. Not that he lied and hid things all the time, but there were a few things he’d really rather not touch on.

“Dare.”

 

[free2bealways]

James smirked at Talia's drama comment. "Nothing from you," he pointed at her. "You refused to vote. That means you veto your right to an opinion."


Brooklyn crawled out of James's lap as she asked Glade her question. She was positively vibrating with excitement. When it came to true or dare, she was the queen. And she wasn't going to let James ruin it by launching a grenade in the first round. She'd get him back, but it was better to make him sweat first.

She sipped her drink, letting the tension build as the considered her options for Glade's dare.

"Beg the last girl to break up with you to take you back. On a big holoscreen in the middle of the room so we can all watch."

 

[Phsyco]

“Ouch,” Talia replied jokingly as James put her on the sidelines. She chuckled and took a sip from her glass.

When Brooklyn made her dare for Glade, Talia spoke up again. “Ah, that’s a bust.”


“Well, that’s easy enough,” he replied. “Or... I guess not easy, but impossible.” He gave a lopsided frown and shrugged. “I’ve never had a girlfriend,” he admitted. “Been on a few dates here and there, but none of them ever turned into an actual relationship.”

He stuffed a doughnut hole in his mouth. Game night was one of the only times he could get away with that and Talia not at least give him a look.

“So, my turn then?” He looked at James with a raised brow. “James. Truth or dare?”

 

[free2bealways]

"Nope," Brooklyn said still smiling. "You don't get off that easy. I didn't say she had to be a girlfriend. I just didn't want you begging some poor girl you dumped. So a single date will do. Provided you weren't the one to break it off. Go on. We're waiting."

It was actually better that he hadn't had a serious girlfriend recently. Brooklyn would feel bad if the situation ended any other way than Glade looking like a psycho.

 

[Phsyco]

“Oh, come on...” he sighed, but smiled while Talia laughed. “I don’t even know how to turn the holo screen on.”

“Good thing you didn’t pick Truth, because that’s definitely a lie,” Talia chimed in. “Activate holo-screen,” she called out to the voice-activated device.

“Everything has to be voice activated, doesn’t it?” he lamented, staring up at the screen. He connected with his personal device and dialed in a number. After two failed attention, a young brunette woman finally answered.

“Glade?” she was clearly wondering what on earth he was doing.

“Jessica, hey...” he started off, clearly a little uncomfortable. “Look I was really hoping you’d be willing to go out with me and-“

“Glade... stop,” she cut him off. “I told you last time. We’re not a good match.”

“Please?” He dod his best to beg. “Please?”

She scowled and looked at him with a confused expression. “Someone put you ip to this didn’t they?”

“Please, Jessica!” He over-dramatized it.

At that point she rolled her eyes and hung up, hearing Talia’s muffled laughter in the background.

Glade looked to Brooklyn. “Satisfied?”

 

[free2bealways]

Brooklyn bit her lip, trying to hold in the laughter. The second Jessica cut the connection, it burst out of her.

"Oh my god! That was amazing!" Brooklyn wiped a pretend tear out of her eye. "I think you could have been more serious," she replied. "But yes."

"Angel most of the time, demon if you're playing games," James said with a smirk. "Watch out for her. I tried to warn you."

Brooklyn stuck her tongue out at him. "You're just jealous because you're losing."

"How do you win at truth or dare?" His brows knit together.

"You'llllll see," Brooklyn sang.

 

[Phsyco]

Glade just looked at Brooklyn for a moment, as if he was trying to decide whether to change his choice from James to her now.

“Maybe I should ask you instead of James,” he prodded playfully.

“Hey now,” Talia spoke up. “You can’t change. You already picked James.” She smirked a bit at James. “But ya know... I guess I guess I vetoed my right to an opinion, so...”

Glade eyed her with a narrow gaze. “Whatever.”

He looked back to James. “Truth or dare?”

 

[free2bealways]

Please don't. James thought as Glade considered picking Brooklyn instead. There was always a chance she would fake him out again. He was beginning to wonder if maybe it would just be better to deal with whatever she had in mind. Wondering what she was going to do to him was trying to look like to the worse option. His mind was already spinning with possibilities.

"That's right, Talia. You know your place," James said, only half listening to himself.

Truth or dare. Huh. He couldn't imagine any particularly damaging things Glade could ask about. Didn't actually know what he'd even care to ask. But, James wasn't one to give out information if he could avoid it.

"Dare," James said.

"Lame!" Brooklyn called.

James took a pillow and pretended to smoother her with it. She giggled from underneath it.

 

[Phsyco]

Talia just rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink and a handful of nuts.

“Dare it is,” Glade agreed, then took a moment to consider. He didn’t want to get too extreme, or there was likely to be some retaliation. “I dare you to... open the window and sing your favorite song as loud as you can.”

 

[free2bealways]

"All that power...wasted." Brooklyn shook her head. She gulped down the rest of her drink and went for a refill. She staggered getting off the couch, but managed to find her footing. Swayed a bit on the dismount, but Masters stuck the landing! 9.8! She giggled. The world was pleasantly warm and fuzzy as she padded off to the kitchen.

No problem. I love being the center of attention. James thought sarcastically. He knew, in the grander scheme of things, this was a completely harmless dare. Glade could have done something much worse. But he still didn't want to. It was much more fun watching other people make complete fools of themselves. Like Glade's conversation with that woman. Priceless.

James commanded the nearest window not blocked by furniture to open. It gilded smoothly up, giving them a completely unobstructed view of the park below. James drained his glass.

He approached the window and looked down. Then he grabbed the edge of it, and lifted his foot, like he was going to jump. Actually putting your foot out the window would trigger the safety sensors. You'd be instantly captured by a forcefield and detained until help arrived. So, in other words, the perfect end to game night. (Putting your head or hand out the window did not trigger the safety sensors.)

"If we didn't let Glade off that easy, we're not letting you either," Brooklyn called from the kitchen. "We'd just make you sing your song from your safety bubble!"

She would too.

"Fine!" James called back. Then he began to sing, loudly, but not quite at the top of his voice.

Brooklyn stopped moving from the kitchen. She'd only ever heard him sing once. She moved back toward the living room and leaned against the back of the couch. It was beautiful. His voice was clear and...it was hard to describe, but wonderful basically. How had she not remembered James could sing?

When the song was over, James made his way back to the couch without making eye contact with anyone.

Once seated, he turned to Talia and asked, "Truth or dare."

 

[Phsyco]

Talia was actually a little surprised at how well James could sing. “Wow, James. You’ve been hiding your talents. Maybe we should start a music night,” she teased.

When he asked her next she didn’t take too long to decide. Unlike Glade she wasn’t one that had much to fear as far as truths. She could get rather embarrassed about having to do some things, though.

“Truth.”

 

[free2bealways]

Brooklyn went back to the kitchen, refilled her glass and returned to the couch. She sat down across the couch from James, her legs bridging the distance between them.

"No," James replied. "Tell us something you've never told anyone."

 

[Phsyco]

Talia swirled her drink around and gave a squinting look as she considered her options. There were several options, some worse than others. For her first question, she decided to go with something simple.

“When I was six, my Dad lectured me about stealing because my brother stole something.” She smiled softly as her nose wrinkled. “You can imagine, dad being a cop, what kind of a lecture we got. I was so pissed off, I went out that very next day and stole a pack of cigarettes and smoked them at school.”

She turned her attention over to Brooklyn, but her eyes slowly shifted towards James. She was tempted to ask him about what had been going on, but knew this wasn’t the time.

“Brooklyn. Truth or dare?”

 

[free2bealways]

Brooklyn glanced at James briefly before looking back to Talia. Talia didn't know she'd been banned from dares. It wasn't like James was playing fair.

"Dare."

James was very tempted to say something, but decided it was in his best interest to be quiet. Brooklyn still had it out for him and it was her turn. She winked him. Not a good sign.

 

[Phsyco]

Talia scrunched up her lips and squinted in a thoughtful manner, tossing a few nuts in her mouth. After the bombshell that James had thrown at Brooklyn — or rather her answer that was the bombshell — she wouldn’t be too harsh. Besides, she didn’t know Brooklyn well enough to go too far. She repositioned herself in her chair before finally stating, “I’ll do a fun one. I dare you to let each of us pick a makeup style for you. Then, let your makeup bot apply the first one, but stop it when it’s one third of the way finished, then start the next, then stop that one one third of the way through, and let the last one finish completely.”

Talia moved the pillow to the side. “Oh, and we get a picture. And if you don’t have your makeup kit on you, I’m more than willing to let you use mine.”

 

[free2bealways]

Brooklyn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Talia was no fun. She stood up, using the arm of the couch to steady herself. She wandered off in a mostly straight line to James's bedroom. She felt around in her backpack until her hand closed around the small metal case.

At least they didn't expect her to get her makeup with eyes closed. She had a good memory, but was sure she'd run into something. Back on the couch, Brooklyn handed her case to James.

He opened the clap and peered in at the interior. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Bini, show James my best looks," Brooklyn said, rolling her eyes. (Bini was what she'd decided to name it.) Several small holographic images appeared in a row above the device. Brooklyn moved her finger through the air, showing James he could scroll. She touched something else, and what looked like hundreds of them appeared in a grid. All of them had Brooklyn's face, but different style, colors and patterns of makeup.

"Good lord!" James exclaimed. He stared blankly at the images for a moment, then closed his and thrust a finger at the wall of images.

"Bini, cover the left third of my face with that one," Brooklyn said.

"That's not one of your regular requests. Please confirm. Only one third of your face?" Bini's voice was feminine.

"Yep!" Brooklyn replied. The images disappeared. Bini rose silently off of James's palm and flew over to Brooklyn, where it sprayed her face with a layer of foam. The foam ate her current make up look and dried invisibly in about 10 seconds. Then Bini sprayed 1/3 of her face with several very fine layers of makeup. When it was done, Bini dropped back into Brooklyn's outstretched hand. She threw Bini at Talia. If she missed, Bini had sensors. It wouldn't let itself crash. Talia caught Bini, made her selection. Then Glade made his and Brooklyn's face was complete.

"Bini, how do I look?" Brooklyn asked. Bini displayed a holographic mirror and Brooklyn laughed. "This hilarious! I love it guys! You can pick all my make up out from now on!"

James captured Brooklyn's laughing face and immediately posted it to his feed. He hadn't realized it mattered what colors you used. She looked ridiculous.

When everyone who'd wanted a photo had gotten one, Brooklyn turned to James. He cracked a smile. It was hard to take her seriously like that.

"James, truth or dare?" Brooklyn asked.

James cringed. He'd been expecting this. Her revenge. He could take the coward's way out. Pick dare, let her humiliate him. He felt he owed her something. Especially after...he still couldn't believe he'd done that. It had seemed so harmless. Why hadn't it occurred to him she might actually have a good reason?

"Truth," he said. Whatever she wanted to ask, she'd earned it.

"Tell me something you've never told me," she said. She was looking intently at him, but her expression had lost some of its earlier edge. He wondered if the alcohol was working in his favor. She was letting him off easy.

He could easily tell her about his job. Or that his mom had remarried. But he felt he owed her more than that. There was one big thing about him she didn't know.

"I...sort of developed a new ability while you were away," he said cautiously. A lot of people were afraid of people like him and he just hope she wasn't one of them.

"Like what? The singing isn't new just because you almost never do it." Brooklyn frowned.

"Not that." He laughed. He rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't sure how to say this. He didn't actually know what it was called. A demonstration. That would work.There was no going back though. Either she accepted him or she didn't. He wasn't sure he could handle it if she didn't.

"Promise me you'll trust me?" he asked.

"Stop stalling. What is it?" Brooklyn groaned.

James reached toward her. He reached toward her hand, but it passed right through disappearing as black smoke. Brooklyn's eyes riveted to her hand. She touched the air where his hand should be and they passed right through.

Her mouth dropped open.

"What is that? How are you doing that? she asked.

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her forehead, then looked into her eyes. He was so relieved that she hadn't run screaming out of the room.

"I don't know. I just can," he said. Part of him couldn't believe his luck and the other part of him chastised himself for ever doubting her.

"Wow. So you can walk through walls and stuff?" she asked. "You're a superhero too." She was careful not to appear overly enthusiastic. What if James's past held a secret as dark as Glade's? She didn't want him thinking less of himself if that were true. Secretly though? She was super jealous. It looked awesome.

"What?" His brow furrowed.

"You and Glade. Is everyone here a superhero but me?" Brooklyn turned toward Talia.

 

[Phsyco]

Talia looked to Glade first, obvious shock on her face that Brooklyn somehow knew about his powers. Glade just sat there with an, “Oh, crap...” look, then wiped it away after a handful of seconds and took a long drink from his lime juice and whiskey.

Talia gave a nervous chuckle, holding up a palm in protest. “Don’t look at me. I’m just normal. These two are the superpower gurus.”



Glade slouched back into the couch. “Lucky you,” he mumbled, sipping again from his drink. He really didn’t care that Brooklyn knew, or even that they knew he told her, he just knew that they knew that telling her wasn’t normal for him. That meant they would be asking all kinds of questions.

He looked over at Talia, then at James, an awkward silence stretching over the room for a moment. He wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe he didn’t need to say anything?


“So...” Talia broke the silence with a half smile. “Anyone need a refill?”